Hitting Shelves 7.9

Today's a pretty expensive day for new releases. So much good stuff out today, here's a bunch I recommend picking up.

From Shout!

Shout! follows up their great 4-Movie Action Marathon set with the Sci-Fi Movie Marathon [4-Film Feature], another collection of 4 lesser known (but still awesome) films from the MGM vaults. The films in the set are as follows:

ARENA – 1989 / PG-13 / 97 min / Full Frame (4x3)
 Far in the future, on a distant world, the best fighters in the universe compete in a gladiator-like sport called "Arena." Steve Armstrong is the first Earthling good enough to be a contender, but an extra-terrestrial crimelord seeks to end Steve's career for good.


ELIMINATORS – 1986 / PG / 95 min / Full Frame (4x3)
A mandroid, part man and part machine, seeks revenge on the evil scientist who created him. Enlisting the help of a beautiful woman and a mysterious ninja, he pursues the scientist in hopes of stopping him before he can cause further harm to humanity. Andrew Prine (The Town That Dreaded Sundown) and Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation) star in this fast-paced actioner.

AMERICA 3000 – 1986 / PG-13 / 94 min / Full Frame (4x3)
In this strange new world of 2890, many years after the apocalypse, savage but beautiful Amazon warriors rule the wasteland and enslave the male population in labor and breeding camps. This inventive re-envisioning of the future stars Laurene Landon (Manic Cop, Hundra).

THE TIME GUARDIAN – 1989 / PG / 89 min / Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) In the year 4039, as the human race nears extinction under the rule of beast-like creatures, an entire city travels through time in hopes of evading capture and forever changing the future. Tom Burlinson (The Man From Snowy River), Carrie Fisher (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) and Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap) star in this science-fiction epic.

Also from Shout! this Tuesday is Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection, this box set includes four of the films that would make Bruce Lee one of the most important martial artists ever to grace the screen. The set includes The Big Boss, Fist Of Fury, Way Of The Dragon and Game Of Death, all on both DVD and, for the first time, Blu-ray. Also included are three DVDs containing two documentaries, Bruce Lee: The Legend (and the original version Bruce Lee: The Man, The Legend) and I Am Bruce Lee, plus over two hours of bonus content exclusive to this set. Get ready to witness the legend of the dragon...

From Vinegar Syndrome:

Punk Vacation
A peaceful California town is shaken after the brutal murder of diner owner by a gang of vicious punks. When the daughter of the slain man attempts to avenge her father’s death, she’s held hostage by the gang resulting in an epic battle between punks and rednecks.
Directed by Stanley Lewis
1987 / USA / 93 min / 1.85:1 / color
Features Include:
+ Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack | Region Free | 1.85:1 AR | MONO
+ Restored in 2K from a 35mm answer print
+ Video interview with Producer, Stephen Fusci (DVD)
+ Video interview with Stuntman, Steven Rowland (DVD)
+ Bonus feature: NOMAD RIDERS (DVD)

Two Times Square classics from the vaults of New York’s oldest surviving producers of underground sexploitation and sleaze — Distribpix, Inc.
THE VIXENS OF KUNG-FU (1975)
After being brutally assaulted by a group of men, a young prostitute is taken in by a secret sect of beautiful female kung-fu masters, who teach her about the erotic side of martial arts.
Director: Bill Milling
70 minutes / Color / AR: 1.85:1
ORIENTAL BLUE (1975)
Madam Blue runs an underground white slave trade operation in an apartment beneath a Chinese restaurant. Her evil henchmen kidnap nubile women off the city streets and subject them to the most unspeakable acts of pleasure.
Director: Bill Milling
85 minutes / Color / AR: 1.85:1


From Synapse

 

Hands of the Ripper

An infant girl watches in horror as her father, the infamous “Jack the Ripper”, brutally murders her mother. Years later, young Anna (Angharad Rees) is now under the care of a fake psychic and has been forced into prostitution. At the end of a séance one evening, a woman is mysteriously killed. Dr. John Pritchard (Eric Porter) suspects Anna is the murderer but cannot understand how she could do this unspeakable act. Using new Freudian psychoanalysis techniques, Pritchard experiments on Anna and discovers a shocking secret. The spirit of the “Ripper” is alive and well, and may be possessing his own daughter! Can this evil be stopped before it’s too late?

Completely restored in high-definition and released uncut for the first time on Blu-ray in the U.S., HANDS OF THE RIPPER is a film widely recognized as one of the most gruesome Hammer horror films ever made. Get it from Amazon.

Street Trash

In the sleazy, foreboding world of winos, derelicts and drifters in lower Manhattan, two young runaways – eighteen-year-old Fred (Mike Lackey) and his younger brother, Kevin (Mark Sferrazza) – live in a tire hut in the back of an auto wrecking yard.  Life is hard, but the most lethal threat to the boys is the mysterious case of “Tenafly Viper” wine in Ed’s liquor store window.  The stuff is forty years old… and it’s gone bad.  REAL bad!  Anyone who drinks it melts in seconds, and it’s only a dollar a bottle!

The subversive cult classic/horror comedy STREET TRASH rode the last wave of super-gore films in the late ‘80s before cinema entered the era of safe R-Rated horror and unoriginal remakes.  Beautifully re-mastered in high-definition, STREET TRASH will melt your eyes and ears with stunning picture and sound. Get it from Amazon.

From MPI

Would You Rather

What would you do if a millionaire offered you a chance to solve all your life s problems? After the tragic death of her parents, Iris (Brittany Snow, Pitch Perfect) is desperate to make ends meet while caring for her terminally ill younger brother. When seemingly philanthropic aristocrat Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs, Re-Animator) expresses an interest in helping them by inviting her to an exclusive dinner party that offers the chance at untold riches, Iris finds herself in a group of similarly desperate individuals all looking to make some easy money. But the guests soon find themselves trapped in Lambrick's mansion and forced to play a sadistic game of Would You Rather, where only the winner will get out alive. As the game progresses, Iris must decide how far she will go to save her brother... and herself. Featuring a terrific ensemble cast that includes Sasha Grey (The Girlfriend Experience), Lawrence Gilliard Jr. (Army Wives), Eddie Steeples (My Name Is Earl) and Charlie Hofheimer (Mad Men), WOULD YOU RATHER is an edge of your seat horror thriller that invites you over for a quiet evening of murder.

The Blu-ray is currently very decently priced at $12.99 on Amazon.

Occasionally I leave a cool title off this list, last week that title was a new British film from Shout! called Tower Block. It's a tense claustrophobic thriller that will really keep you on the edge of your seat for most of the running time. Which is all the more impressive given that about 80% of the film takes place in an apartment building hallway.

A young man is tragically beaten to death on the top floor of a nearly empty, soon to be condemned apartment building. Fearing for their safety nobody in the tower block will talk to police. A short time after an unknown assailant in a building across the way beings shooting into the building, attempting to pick off everyone in the building one by one. The tenants who aren't killed during his initial assault must band together to escape the booby trapped building before the shooter kills them all. 

While it falls squarely in the Thriller genre Tower Block plays a bit like a slasher film, only with an impossibly quick sniper instead of a hulking maniac wielding a machete. Strong performances from the leads and some very sudden and shocking deaths make this one well worth a look. It does manage to screw the pooch in the last couple of minutes - the motive for why the shooter killed several innocent people, including two little girls and an old woman is a real groaner. Despite the letdown of an ending, I still recommend the film. The misstep in the final minute doesn't ruin the 89 minutes that preceded. Check it out. You can pick it up on Blu-ray or DVD here.